(Almost) Complete Nursery

I thought it might be time to show some pics of the (almost) complete nursery... since Lily's been 'occupying' it for 6 months now!

Entry into Lily's room 

(We still need to get a plate for the light switch)

Mirror - Ikea

Bookshelves - Handmade by Grandpa

Virgo Wall Plate - picked up at TMSP flea market

Rug - Ikea

Shelving - Ikea

Crib - Hand me down

Dresser/ Changing Table - picked up at 'Just Between Friends' Consignment sale

Curtains - Ikea

Leaf Canopy - Ikea

Beautiful Baby - Handmade ;-)

Lily @ 6 months

Stats...
...weight 19 lbs 8 oz.  Lily is 95% on weight
...height 26 1/2 inches.  She's currently in the 80% on height
...Lily is still wearing a few of her 6 month clothes, but mostly wearing 9 & 12 month!  

...next appt,  her 9 month checkup and NO shots!  Yay!

Eating......Lily is still breastfeeding, and I pump and give her the occasional bottle!!!  She started eating solids on February 2nd, so she's been on solids for a little over a month now.  Her first food was sweet potatoes, followed by green beans and pears.   She has since tried sweet peas, apples, avocado and rice cereal!  She is a great eater.  She has enjoyed and eaten everything we have given her!  She loves to eat!!!

Sleeping...
...Lily is still co-sleeping with us!  We go to bed between 9-10 and she nurses to sleep and wakes around 8:30-9am.  She wakes about 2-3 times a night to nurse and quickly falls back to sleep!  We are started to work on sleep training and transitioning her to her crib in her own room!


Exploring...
...Lily is very active!  She sits up easily now.  She will lunge forward onto her tummy whenever anything catches her interest.  She rolls over, lifts up on her arms and changes directions but has not quite figured out how to get up on her knees yet!  She loves playing with her toys.  She chooses toys to play with, is able to transfer them from hand to gand to mouth!!! Ha!  Everything goes in the mouth!  She loves her merry muscles bouncer!  She loves dolls with faces and often atudies them and looks into their eyes!  She LOVES music and singing!  We sign and sing Itsy Bitsy spider and she loves it!  Lily is always a happy smiley girl!  She is very social and loves to be talked to!  She blows rasberries now and sounds syllables like Ba Ba Ba, Ma ma ma.

Lily @ 4 months

Stats...
...weight 17 lbs 10 0z.  Lily is 97% on weight
...height 25 1/2 inches.  She's currently in the 95% on height
...Lily has almost outgrown all of her 6 months clothes!!!  She is growing so fast!
...next appt,  her 6 month checkup!

Eating...
...Lily is exclusively breastfeeding!  We have been introducing the bottle once a day, to encourage her being able to take the bottle so maybe mommy and daddy can have a night out soon!!!

Sleeping...
...Lily has been mostly co-sleeping with mommy and daddy.  This past month we have been able to transition her during the night to her pack n play.  She nurses, falls asleep in bed with us and then we move her.  On average she has been sleeping from 10-11ish to 4-5ish.    I hear her wake sometimes around 2ish, but she seems to be soothing herself back to sleep!  Yay!


Exploring...
...Lily is very observant these days!  She wants to be up moving around with mom and dad!  She's able to grasp toys and almost always brings them immediately to her mouth!  She is able to grab both of her feet and is desperately trying to get her toes in her mouth!!!  She rols from side to side when on her back, but has not fully rolled over yet.  Lily does not enjoy tummy time very much, but we try to give her at least 20 mins a day!
Lily chuckles now, and squeals a lot!!!  She is starting to mimic our sounds!  I swear she's said 'hi'!  
She loves bouncing in her merry muscles exerciser!  She will spend an hour in it, bouncing, hanging out and just looking around!

Lily at 8 weeks

Stats...
...weight 13 lbs 9 0z.  That's up 4 lbs since last month!!!  Lily is 95% on weight
...height 23 1/4 inches.  She's grown 2 1/4 inches since her 2 week appt and currently in the 85% on height
...Lily has almost outgrown all of her 0-3 months clothes!!!  Her little legs are getting too long for the onsies!
...next appt on Jan 10th, her 4 month checkup!

Eating...
...Lily is exclusively breastfeeding!  Mama is so proud that she is gaining weight like a champ!!!

Sleeping...
...Lily is co-sleeping with mommy and daddy.  We have weighed the risks and read about the benefits and feel that it is the best arrangement for our family right now.  Lily is still sleeping 2-3 hours at a time, with some 4 hour stints at night.  Some days she will only nap for a half hour, hour and be up 2 hours at a time.
We've been able to maintain our routine of getting bed between 9-10 and falling asleep around 11.  Last night Lily was a little fussy (since her 2 month vacinations, she been a bit fussier :( She feel asleep around 12 and slept until 5am.  Yay for mommy!!!
Lily continues to be a very active sleeper, grunting, moaning, sometimes a yelp!  We watch her as she sleeps and her eyes flutter and roll, she's a dreamer for sure!!!

Exploring...
...Lily is becoming very aware of her surroundings!  She noticed Sabrina (our cat) for the first time last week!  She smiled and stared for bit before the cat became impatient waiting for me to pet her!!!  Lily loves the toys hanging from her carseat, she stares at them and sometime reaches out and hits them!  Still loves the Mamaroo and looking at the balls, again sometimes reaching out to hit them.
Lily has started making lots of noises the past few weeks.  She 'talks' to the bird on the curtain, the balls on the Mamaroo and us quite often.  She loves hearing us imitate her noises!

Family Traditions

Growing up there were few 'traditions' in my family.  My parents, sister and I moved to Honolulu when I was 7 years old, and while I'm sure there were family traditions we participated in prior to the move, sadly I do not remember them.  When we moved to Hawaii, we tried to start a few traditions in our new home, such as spending Christmas day at the beach (because, why not ;-).  Now that I have my own family and by my own sentimental nature, I think it is important to establish our own family traditions.
One of my family traditions is visiting the Pumpkin Patch around Halloween.  This year we were thrilled to take Lily along, even if she did sleep the entire time!

last year, 2011

Another family tradition I am looking forward to sharing with our Lily is Thanksgiving.  We hold Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  This year the entire family is joining us... 

Lily at 4 weeks

I cannot believe how fast these last 4 weeks have gone by!  This past month has been wonderful, overwhelming, frustrating and amazing!

Stats...
...weight 9 lbs 9.7oz at 3 weeks and 3 days.  Lily had lost a little over 10% of her body weight by 1 week, down to 8 lbs.  By her 2 week appt she was up to 8 lbs 15 oz.
...height 21 inches at her 2 week appt.  Lily was 19.5 inches at birth.
...LIly has outgrown most of her newborn clothes and is now wearing 0-3 months.
...next appt on Nov 9th, her 2 month checkup!

Eating...
...Lily is nursing like a champ these days!  We had some difficulty out of the gate because mommy has flat nips.   Our Doula suggested nipple shields, which we used for 3 weeks to help with feeding.  It only took Lily about 3 days to transition off the shield to bare nip.  Now that she is off the shield she is feeding and sleeping more frequently.

Sleeping...
...Lily is now sleeping 2-3 hours at a time, with some 4 hour stints at night.  She is usually up for an hour to 3 hours at a time.
We've been able to get into a good night time routine this past week.  Lily comes to bed with mommy and daddy between 9-10pm.  We watch t.v. and Lily gets a good feeding in and usually falls asleep sometime around 11pm.  She stirs a little during the night, and I get up to change her sometime around 2-3am and again between 5-6am.  She barely wakes fully during these times, and I nurse her a little after her changing just to get her fully back to sleep.
Lily is a very active sleeper, she grunts and sometimes laughs in her sleep... we think she is quite the dreamer!!!
We're co-sleeping right now, which works for us.  With Z being back to work, Lily can stir a little during the night which wakes me without a full blown cry fit.  We hope to transition her to the bassinet/ crib within the next few months, but for now we're just rolling with it!

Exploring...
...this past week & half Lily has become much more alert to her surroundings.  She enjoys looking at the curtains beside her changing table (black/ white print of trees and birds).  She also enjoys looking at the balls above her Mamaroo, also black/ white prints.  Lily is starting to smile more frequently now.  She is a very happy girl!  Lily loves bath time and I often get a couple of good smiles out of her.  Lily grunts and coos a little now.

Birth Story

My amazing hubby SoggyStargazer wrote up our Birth Story from his perspective a few weeks back, which was amazing to read!  I started feeling that I needed to put in all into my own words as well.  I have so much I want to express and share about our experience that it seems almost impossible to convey how utterly perfect it all was!

My hubby and I spent a lot of time over the 9 months reading, asking questions, and deciding that we wanted to try for a natural childbirth (no epidural, no narcotics, no interventions).  We hired a Doula, and attended classes to help us with coping through the labor pains. We created a birth plan and shared it with our OB. But we were very realistic in knowing that rarely do things go according to plan, so we prepared ourselves for alternatives and knew that however our birth played out we would not be surprised by any necessary interventions/ procedures.